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Skorik

Birdsall

By Birdsall
in Dancers

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Buddy

Buddy

Posted
Posted

I will admit to not having viewed this video segment.

I have watched more than ten minutes of the rest of the The Shades Act and find her to be absolutely Elegant, almost sublime at times. Her statuesque beauty is as fine as I've seen in anyone. Towards the finale this Elegance carries over to her facial expression and her totality, I find to be, well, -- Absolutely Elegant ! 

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Buddy

Buddy

Posted
Posted (edited)

Just watched a video clip twice of a recent performance by Oxana Skorik of the “Swan” (Fokine). I’m more convinced than ever that she is probably the most beautiful ballerina today in terms of pure motion and sculpture. I’ve watched a video clip of Anna Pavlova over and over doing this in slow motion. Probably the most beautiful dance experience that I’ve seen on film. I saw Alina Somova perform perhaps the most compelling version I’ve ever seen (not captured well on video). This video view of Oxana Skorik is the closest I’ve seen to my Anna Pavlova film experience. Absolutely gorgeous !

Added: Having just watched my artificially reproduced video of Anna Pavlova in slow motion, nothing that I've seen on film or stage has come close. Yet Oxana Skorik's 'Real' performance on video is probably the best that I've seen.

Added added: The video of Galina Ulanova's real performance is probably the closest I've seen to my Anna Pavlova experience. Both represent an other worldly beauty of expression that will be hard to touch. Olga Smirnova remains in my mind the most capable today of coming close. In terms of pure dance Ulyana Lopatkina may be one of the best ever. Oxana Skorik still remains in my mind the most beautiful today in pure dance.

Edited by Buddy
"Addeds" added
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Buddy

Buddy

Posted
Posted (edited)

Hands like Angel's Wings

She is, perhaps, the most beautiful ballerina in the world today. 

At her artistic essence is the pure beauty of her dance. 

I don't normally post videos unless they're 'officially' offered. This one I believe can be considered to be. Other videos probably show much better detail, especially of the remarkable use of her hands. 

This is certainly one of the most beautiful works that she performs -- Fokine's "The Swan".  

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bf9AqDajr_0&t=38s

 

 

 

Edited by Buddy
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Drew

Drew

Posted
Posted

I have seen Skorik just twice live. I thought her Raymonda a few years ago in D.C. was lovely--even quite wonderful in the dream-vision scene and the grand pas at the end. And of the three Raymondas I saw she was the only one who didn't muck up the moment with the lyre which is one of my favorite moments in the ballet--the two other ballerinas both slipped/stumbled while handling it. (Possibly bad luck or a slippery spot on stage for the latter two at those performances, but still...Skorik is the one I saw pull that moment off.)  Her Bayadere which I saw the next year in D.C. was a bit disappointing by comparison, though it had some appealing qualities.  I will add that in everything I have heard or read about her during both of those runs, people reacted to her rather differently depending on which performance they attended. (And people who saw her multiple times seemed to confirm the unevenness.)

Quite a bit of time has passed since those tours to Kennedy Center. I certainly don't have a good sense of how she is dancing now, but leaving video out of it, I'd say that based on those two performances, I'd be happy to see her again live.  At the moment I am not at all confident I will get the chance.

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Buddy

Buddy

Posted
Posted (edited)

I've seen her about thirty times live, Drew, and when it gets down to the pure grace and loveliness of her dancing I find her to be quite wonderful. Have I said that before ?  🙂

I do hope that you get to see many more performances of those that you really like in the years to come.

Added: Hi Cristian !

 

 

Edited by Buddy
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cubanmiamiboy

cubanmiamiboy

Posted
Posted
16 hours ago, Buddy said:

I've seen her about thirty times live, Drew, and when it gets down to the pure grace and loveliness of her dancing I find her to be quite wonderful. Have I said that before ?  🙂

I do hope that you get to see many more performances of those that you really like in the years to come.

Added: Hi Cristian !

 

 

Hi Buddy!

I must confess my opinion of her is heavily and permanently permeated by my recollections on the first time I ever saw her dancing. It was many years ago down here in Miami in a pdd's gala, where she pulled a tragic "MistyEsque" Black Swan coda that would had made Misty's own take on the segment look like a Prima Ballerina Assoluta's supreme masterclass in fouettes. All I can say is that she hit the pit's foot light all the way to stage right, right next to the wing before her 10 fouette. It was so bombastic and embarrassing that people gasped. Not only that...but she stopped, visibly dizzy, and without a plan B there was a HUGE amount of coda music loudly sounding while both her and her Siegfried looked confused up there doing NOTHING. I had NEVER seen something like that ever before or after in my whole life. As I say....Misty's efforts look like Prima material in comparisson.

And also true....I'm not into willowy limbs and posing worship material. I'll take the sturdy short dancer who spins like a daredevil anytime. 

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Buddy

Buddy

Posted
Posted
9 hours ago, cubanmiamiboy said:

Hi Buddy!

 

Hi again, Cristian, and thanks for your thoughts and comments.

I've also seen her perform technical 'glitches' along the way but she seems to be well past that as she's gained much confidence over the years. I've seen some of the greats, and just some of my favorites, have their 'spells' but, for me, what's so overriding is their overall qualities.

Hope all is well with you and your little girl and all your family. I also hope that you continue to see some great ballet.


 

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Mashinka

Mashinka

Posted
Posted

Skorik is symptomatic of the trend to produce a certain type of dancer to the exclusion of others.  Ballet in general is in a serious decline and won't recover until artistry is rated higher than technique and appearance.

If Skorik has managed to loose her habitually sullen expression, I might give her another go, but like others I believe what is happening in Russia makes it highly unlikely any of us will see a Russian company for a very long time, and in my case perhaps never.

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Roberta

Roberta

Posted
Posted (edited)
23 hours ago, Mashinka said:

...., but like others I believe what is happening in Russia makes it highly unlikely any of us will see a Russian company for a very long time, and in my case perhaps never.

Skorik may be the topic of this thread but my heart fell as I read these words. You are quite correct in your feelings that we in the West will most likely not be experiencing the Mariinsky, Bolshoi and other Russian ballet troupes for a long, long time.  Makes us realize how very fortunate we in the West (UK, USA, etc.) were to have had them appear on our stages regularly, between about 1956 until 2019/20. It was almost taken for granted. Now we are about to feel what our grandparents felt - no true Russian ballet from the homeland...perhaps a new Ballets-Russes will come of this, to fill the void?

Husband and I are not renewing our Kennedy Center ballet subscription. Not interested in mostly-modern (fake ballet), danced among minimal sets, with very few pointe shoes and classical tutus in sight. This is not the classical greatness of the past. If I want to see NYCB or ABT 'live' next year, in the ballets that I love, there's Amtrak rail (about 3 hrs away).

Thank goodness for our film collections and memories. I bought an extra multi-system DVD player that should remain in working condition until I leave this earth. 😇

Edited by Roberta
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Drew

Drew

Posted
Posted (edited)
14 hours ago, Roberta said:

...You are quite correct in your feelings that we in the West will most likely not be experiencing the Mariinsky, Bolshoi and other Russian ballet troupes for a long, long time.  Makes us realize how very fortunate we in the West (UK, USA, etc.) were to have had them appear on our stages regularly, between about 1956 until 2019/20. It was almost taken for granted. Now we are about to feel what our grandparents felt -

 

Yes, we have been fortunate -- though the history of these tours was more uneven in time and space than this suggests.  I think between the mid-sixties and the Reagan era, the Mariinsky (then Kirov) did not  appear in the U.S. And I believe there was something like 10 years between the Bolshoi's visits to NY prior to the 2014 --and between then and Feb 2022 how much has the Bolshoi been seen in the U.S.--I mean on a proper company tour not as part of some festival?

Kennedy Center in D.C has been spoiled the last decade with the Mariinsky coming every year for a week--but that began with the largess of a donor (albeit one who ran out on his promises).  London has recently seemed to do much better: for a while it had alternating years of Bolshoi and Mariinsky tours--three weeks usually, too.

Aside from geopolitics I think the big issue for these tours, especially to the United States, is costs which now appear to be prohibitive without obscenely wealthy donors. Possibly once the war in Ukraine is over and assuming some economic relations with Russia are normalized (not a certainty especially if the war ends in a stalemate of some kind) the Russian government itself might want to underwrite them....but who knows?

Edited by Drew
Fixing grammar/clarity
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Roberta

Roberta

Posted
Posted

Even if the Mariinsky and Bolshoi tours resume in a few years' time, it likely won't be the 19th-C classics with elaborate sets & costumes, unless a new Alberto Vilar can be found. We'll be lucky to get the Forsythe triple bill in front of a black background, to canned music.

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Buddy

Buddy

Posted
Posted

Good points, Drew. California and occasionally Chicago have done fairly well in getting to see the Mariinsky and the Bolshoi. I would hope that cultural exchanges would resume as soon as possible.

Until then, this might cheer you up somewhat, Roberta. 

The State Ballet of Georgia, Nina Ananiashvili, Artistic Director, will perform at the George Mason University, Fairfax, Virginia, April, 2023.

(Thanks to Jeannette at BalletcoForum) 

Currently associated with the company are Xander Parish (ex-Mariinsky and RB), Laura Fernandez-Gromova (ex Stanislavsky, PoluninInk, and Mariinsky), Oscar Frame (ex-Bolshoi and Astrakhan), Gavriel Heine (formerMariinsky conductor) and others. 

(Thanks to FionaE at BalletcoForum)

Here's more information at the Ballet Alert! "The State Ballet of Georgia" forum.

https://balletalert.invisionzone.com/topic/46985-some-russian-ballet-faces-the-state-ballet-of-georgia /#comment-440349

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cubanmiamiboy

cubanmiamiboy

Posted
Posted
On 5/30/2022 at 12:03 PM, Buddy said:

Hi again, Cristian, and thanks for your thoughts and comments.

I've also seen her perform technical 'glitches' along the way but she seems to be well past that as she's gained much confidence over the years. I've seen some of the greats, and just some of my favorites, have their 'spells' but, for me, what's so overriding is their overall qualities.

Hope all is well with you and your little girl and all your family. I also hope that you continue to see some great ballet.


 

All is well, Buddy. Girl is growing by the minute. Gotta apologize for being so harsh on Skorik, whom I know you adore. And I understand it. Opinions on ballet esthetics have been divided since the beginning of the art form. We're probably pre conditioned from what our brains got from the art form in our first baby steps as viewers. Cuban ballerinas were never tall, willowy or particularly refined in their physique. On the other side, they were fierce devilish turners. And that footprint have stayed with me ever since. Which is why I'm attracted to the flashing ways of the Osipovas and Bouders of this world. But I gotta give you that no one look as refined and poised onstage as the Russians.

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Buddy

Buddy

Posted
Posted (edited)
5 hours ago, cubanmiamiboy said:

All is well, Buddy. Girl is growing by the minute. Gotta apologize for being so harsh on Skorik, whom I know you adore. And I understand it. Opinions on ballet esthetics have been divided since the beginning of the art form. We're probably pre conditioned from what our brains got from the art form in our first baby steps as viewers. Cuban ballerinas were never tall, willowy or particularly refined in their physique. On the other side, they were fierce devilish turners. And that footprint have stayed with me ever since. Which is why I'm attracted to the flashing ways of the Osipovas and Bouders of this world. But I gotta give you that no one look as refined and poised onstage as the Russians.

Thanks for your thoughts, Cristian, and understanding response. Yes, we all have our preferences. 

I'm also a big fan of Natalia Osipova and took to calling the Bolshoi the "Osipova" when I first saw her. I also saw Ashley Bouder blow the stage away at a Mariinsky Festival with her Tarantella. This kind of fireworks doesn't usually happen at the Mariinsky and it was highly appreciated.

I also have the feeling  from documentaries that I've seen that no one loves ballet more than those who perform it in Cuba.

For me, at the moment, Oxana Skorik's use of her hands is the stuff that dreams are made of. And there's much more.

So glad to hear that your little (not so little anymore?) girl is doing well, which I hope is also true for you and your entire family.
 

Edited by Buddy
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Drew

Drew

Posted
Posted (edited)

Like many Russian artists Skorik continues to post on Instagram -- using a VPN I guess or some other way -- and of course the  posts from Russian artists that I have seen all stay away from the topic of the war. Not today however....

Because Skorik was born in Kharkiv/Kharkov (she gives the Russian name) she was interrogated at an airport and had to unlock her phone for the security people to look at. And she was not happy about the experience. Almost I could laugh at her outrage over the "violation of her rights" in a Russian airport--"violation of her rights" in all caps on Instagram--but the situation is too horrible for everyone. And she almost comes out against the war, though it's not clear that that's what she really thinks rather than that she is just really (really, really) pissed off. Here is the link--I think cooler-headed friends may tell her to take this down [edited a day later: the photo is there but the text of the post and all the comments on the post that I saw yesterday have been deleted]:

https://www.instagram.com/p/Ceidi68oMFK/

Edited by Drew
Link no longer shows what it once did...
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